In a Perfect World
by jenneticdisorder
Summary: AU. What Mark and Lexie's life together would have been like post-'Flight'.
1. Chapter 1

So, this is my first Grey's fic, brought on (of course) by the season finale that absolutely crushed my heart into smithereens. I created this story to kind of flesh out a lot of the things I had wanted so badly to happen for Mark and Lexie in a perfect world. This story is purely AU and will be jam packed full of romance and adorable M/L stuff. I _love_ reviews (hint hint hint) and hope you guys enjoy!

Sorry if there's an abundance of typos or anything in this first chapter. Currently, it is 2:17 in the morning my time, as inspiration for this only struck at around 1:00am.

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A lot of people viewed death as a tunnel—something you were sucked into, with the light at the other end practically calling your name, greeting you warmly as you passed from life to whatever was afterward.

To Lexie Grey, death appeared as the ocean, with water so blue it made her heart hurt and sand so white that she felt she'd been transported from Washington to the Bahamas in the blink of an eye. The sun shone down on her like a warm friend, enveloping her in a cocoon of calmness and tranquility as her toes crinkled in the sand. It was a lovely feeling. Beautiful. A light breeze played with her hair and the lavender-colored sundress tousled around her knees as she walked on what felt like unfamiliar legs toward a dark-skinned girl sitting in the sand ten feet in front of her, making a sandcastle.

"Zola?" Lexie asked, and her niece turned from the sand and looked at her with a wide smile. Zola stretched out her hand, allowing Lexie to help her up from the sand. "But you're—" "Older," Zola answered, dusting off her own dress before beginning to walk toward the shore, hand in hand with her aunt. "Can't exactly communicate much in the present time, you see." In this world or hallucination or whatever it was, Zola appeared to be about fifteen, but spoke as if she was much older.

Of course none of this was real. Lexie could process that much. It was far too perfect and the water far too empty. If this was real, there would have been others out playing in the sand, soaking up such beautiful rays. "Am I dead?" She asked finally, after several minutes of silence. Zola considered this. "I think you could be, if you wanted to." It took Lexie a minute to process this. Did she _want_ to die? To let go of everything and just simply float away? She couldn't help but revel in the perfection of this world, in the utter beauty of it. "You aren't sure?" Zola raised an eyebrow. "What is the last thing you remember before you were here?"

It was all very fuzzy for several moments, before the shocking realization hit her as her toes touched the cool edge of the ocean's tide. "Our plane crashed," she stated, voice coming out an octave lower than it had previously. "I—I was stuck. Mark tried to get me out. Told me to hold on because… because…"

"You had too much ahead of you," this older version of Zola finished.

"Yes." And, like that, her foggy visions of what could have been came back to her. All the things Mark had explained. They could get married. They could have kids. Lexie had never minded children, but her career goal of becoming a doctor had put up a bit of a road block in that department. For a while, she'd been certain that having children wasn't what she wanted. And now that she thought about it—thought about her own stomach rounded and full and the sensation of baby feet kicking inside of it and the thought of waking up every morning laying next to Mark Sloan—an overpowering feeling of _wanting_ crashed over her like a tidal wave.

"So I could go back?" Lexie stopped and turned to her niece. There had been a time once where she'd had a dream very much like this, of her carrying her niece along the shore of the ocean. The ocean was always her favorite as a child. The Grey family had vacationed there several times. And she'd always dreamt of taking Zola, using up entire afternoons to build sandcastles and splash around when the tide was low.

As nice as this entire pre-afterlife scenario was, Lexie Grey would have taken the real thing any day.

Zola closed her eyes and let the breeze rustle her hair. "Yes," she answered finally, as if something in the wind had spoken to her and declared a final answer, "If that is truly what you want." Her eyes opened. "But think about the choice you're making. Life is difficult. The after is much like this. Very peaceful, and beautiful. And your loved ones will all be here one day, though most likely none of them will get the chance to make this choice. Your circumstance is a strange one," she smiled. "What is your heart telling you?"

This time, Lexie thought of not only Mark, but the others she would be leaving behind. She thought of Meredith, who had been such a good sister, who she would miss so terribly. She thought of Derek, who had truly become her big brother in every sense of the word. She thought of the real Zola, who would one day need her crazy Aunt Lexie for boy advice and spa days. And she thought of her own children; the ones Mark had talked about. And with these people in her head, she couldn't say no. "I want to go home." And Zola nodded solemnly, "Then you know what you have to do."

And, if nothing else had told her that this was a dream, the fact that ruby red heels (so coated with glitter that it was obnoxious) appeared on her feet at that moment did. "There is no place like home… There is no place like home… There is no place like home…"


	2. Chapter 2

Unfortunately, what her subconscious had interpreted as time to go home had appeared in real time as electric paddles against her chest.

"Still coding! One last try," a doctor yelled. "CLEAR!" All hands flew off of Lexie Grey and her body jolted. The air around them was tense and as electric as the paddles trying to shock her into life. A collective sigh of relief came from the doctors present. It had been a rough day in the E.R. after the plane crash site of the Seattle Grace Mercy West doctors had been found. They were working on their own (or, well, sort of—they might not have come from their hospital, but it could have just as easily been them in their shoes). In fact, as resident Holly Stepp had no problem noting, she and the girl in front of her were very alike. They had similar build and height. Their hair color was practically the same. The only real, tangible difference between the two of them was that Holly Stepp hadn't just nearly been crushed by the weight of a plane and wasn't laying in a hospital bed unconscious. "I'll finish up here. You go talk to her family in the waiting room," Dr. Spiller nodded to her.

Holly made her way out of the room. The closer she got to the waiting area, the more commotion she could hear.

"Please, just tell me what is going on!" A slightly older man tried to get past an attending. He was graying and handsome and unraveling at the seams.

"We thought she was _dead_, the least you can do is tell us if she is!" A woman, slightly younger than the man, was also doing her best to get through. "Please, let us look at your injuries first—" The attending sounded like he was nearly at the end of his rope. Of course, doctors went through this routine every day, even with other doctors. On one side of the line, they understood there were protocols and relatives couldn't stand around and watch their loved ones be resuscitated. On the other side, when the patient wasn't just a patient to you and was someone you truly cared about, things were different.

"Uhm, excuse me," Holly interjected, the eyes of the harried attending and the two Seattle Grace doctors shifting to her. "Are you here for Alexandra Grey?"

"Yes," both responded simultaneously. The woman spoke next. "I'm her sister, Meredith Grey."

"All right. Please come over this way." She guided them to an area of chairs. Both looked worse for wear and needed to be checked out, but even Holly could acknowledge that this was more important. Who wanted to sit around and be examined while their loved one got one final chance at life? "Well, we had a bit of trouble getting her heart to start back up once she made it in, but she came back after a couple tries. She has what appears to be several broken bones and cracked ribs, and possibly some internal injuries, but she is alive. And, if the next few days go well, she could very well be alive for a long time. Unfortunately, we don't know the extent of her injuries yet. It seems that, though whatever was on top of her crushed her quite a bit, there was also some layer of the plane keeping her protected. It is quite possibly a miracle that she landed where she did and not a few inches to the right or left." Both looked relieved. "So, for now, we have her in a medically induced coma. Her body went through quite a bit of trauma today. Once her healing processes are underway, we will see what happens."

There were a million questions that rushed into Mark's head. A thousand things he wanted to check that they were planning on doing. A thousand tests that they needed to triple check the results of before they did anything. Twenty thousand things he wanted to inspect and make sure they did correctly. Because, though he liked to trust that most doctors knew what they were doing, this wasn't just any patient. This was Lexie. He'd nearly lost her once today, and it wasn't over a petty fight or a break-up. It was nearly for good; and he didn't ever planning on going through that again. "When can we see her?"

Doctor Stepp smiled, "Soon. But let's get both of you patched up first, all right?"

The next couple days went slowly. Each member of Seattle Grace had been patched up and Lexie was on the mend, too. She had been unconscious the whole time, but had managed to fight through a surgery to repair her internal organs. Luckily, none of her ribs were completely broken, but she did have a few bad fractures in addition to a broken leg and sprained arm. But she was Lexie Grey. She was a badass, and she was going to live.

They were nearing the home stretch. Mark, Meredith, and Derek cycled in and out of Lexie's room as she was unconscious. For a while, she'd been on a feeding tube, but now that the doctors were looking for her to regain consciousness soon, they had removed it. The next (and final) big step was waking up. All three had been on edge the entire day, hoping at, at any moment, Little Grey would open her eyes. It was something that, during their last hours in the woods, they thought they would never see again.

It was Mark's shift in Lexie's room and they were watching Jeopardy. Or, well, he was watching Jeopardy, and Lexie was lying in her bed, still completely out. This was probably about the only time he would ever have more answers during an episode of Jeopardy than she would (the photographic memory thing made game shows a walk in the park for her). It wasn't long before visiting hours would finish up. A nurse would probably find her way in soon to get him out. Mark sighed. Soon, he would have to go back to the motel a few blocks away where the three who had stayed to be with Lexie were during every hour they weren't at the hospital. For now, Alex Trebek was Mark's only company.

"Denmark was the homeland of this writer, who penned the classic tale _The Ugly Duckling_."

"Hans Christian Anderson."

And, with that, Mark Sloan nearly fell out of his chair. Because the voice who answered Alex Trebek wasn't him, and wasn't a TV contestant. The quiet, groggy, rough voice came from right next to him.

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Thanks so much for the reviews and subscriptions so far, everyone! I'm glad you guys are as excited about this fic as I am. Please remember to keep reading and reviewing!


	3. Chapter 3

The voice was soft—barely audible. It was scratchy and dry from days of not speaking and from the feeding tube that had helped keep her alive when she was unconscious. But it was the most beautiful sound Mark Sloan had ever heard.

"Hey, sleeping beauty!" Mark grinned, his eyes shifting to her, taking her hand. She was still groggy and half asleep, eyes partly closed but a half smile on her lips. "How are you feeling?" His eyes searched the room for a stethoscope in order to make sure things with her vitals were on track.

"Like I got crushed by a plane," Lexie croaked.

"Well, that figures." He couldn't help but laugh despite his concern to make sure she was okay. "Do you want some water? Food? Do you need me to get the doctor in here? Do you want me to get Meredith here before visiting hours end?" Of course, Lexie's mind skipped straight over what it was _she_ needed and went to the last option. "Was Meredith okay? And Derek and Arizona and Cristina? Did we all make it?" Despite grogginess from being drugged up for three days, Lexie appeared instantly worried. She even tried to sit up to see if anyone else was there.

"Shhhh, shhh, it's okay. Everything's all right. We all made it. We were all pretty beat up, but Cristina and Arizona went home to recuperate and Meredith, Derek, and I are here. They're at the hotel." Mark squeezed her hand, urging her to lay back down (she had no issues with this—the drugs were strong, but not strong enough to completely erase the pain of her screaming ribs). "You were the only wild card. Could've went either way for a while there." He looked very grim for a moment. "But you made it. A few cracked ribs and a broken leg, but you stuck it out." And he was back to grinning. "You, Lexie Grey, are a fighter."

"What can I say? I'm a badass," another drugged smile crossed her lips. He laughed. "Yes, you absolutely are. Now, back to my original question. Do you need water or food or anything?" "Water might be nice," her voice was so hoarse it made speech a bit difficult. "Coming right up," Mark smiled, dropping her hand to go check with one of the nurses.

Of course, as soon as he went to the nurse's station, the first words out of the nurse's mouth was, "Sir, please note that visiting hours end in," she checked her watch, "thirty seconds." He'd seen this nurse around the floor. A bit of a hard ass, but she reminded him a lot of Bailey. But, then again, he'd also thought the doctor that first came to talk to him and Meredith had looked a lot like Lexie. Maybe the Seattle Grace doctors just had doppelgangers in this hospital, or maybe he was imagining things. Either way, he'd been sorely tempted all day to sneak around the hospital to try to find a ruggedly handsome, middle-aged plastic surgeon with salt and pepper hair.

Mark nodded, "I know, and I understand completely. I'm a doctor, remember? But please. She just woke up and all she wants is some water."

The nurse raised an eyebrow, "Does the sign say 'From eight until eight unless the patient wants some water'?" She looked at the visiting hours sign and back to Mark.

"Please. Two minutes. Just give me two minutes, and I promise you won't see me again until eight in the morning." Mark wasn't used to groveling, but sometimes it was necessary. The woman eyed him sternly, checking the surrounding hallway for any wandering doctors or other nurses. She found none. "Fine. But if they ask, I didn't see you. I didn't hear you. I didn't speak to you. And I definitely wasn't the one you came to for any water."

Yep, definitely Bailey.

Mark thanked her and returned to Lexie's room with a small plastic cup of water. She looked exhausted. "Here you go. She said this was all you're allowed to have until you get checked over in the morning. Interesting lady, that one. If she comes in to check up on you, let me know if she reminds you of anyone." Lexie seemed confused by this statement, but nodded anyway, sucking down her cup of water in a matter of seconds. "Better?" Mark questioned.

"Yes. Much." Her voice sounded much better now and she relaxed against her pillows. "So, we're all okay?" She had to double check. "Yes. We're all okay. But, out of all of us, you are currently the least okay. So you be sure to work on that, all right?" Lexie nodded slowly before her eyes caught those of the nurse in the hallway. She was standing outside the door with her finger pointing to her watch.

"Why is the nurse glaring at you?" He sighed and checked the time. "My two minutes are up. Visiting hours are done," Mark kissed her forehead gently. "You get some rest and I'll come back in the morning. Before you even know I'm gone." She sighed, but settled back into her pillows. He felt Lexie would have been much less compliant if she wasn't so drugged up. "Tell everyone I said hi," she whispered, as slowly closing as she drifted off to sleep. Mark smiled and exited, waving to the nurse on the way out.

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I have been so pleased the past couple days with all of the reviews and subscriptions I've gotten! My inbox has been absolutely exploding. Thank you all so much! It makes me so happy to know people are enjoying what I've put out so far.

Unfortunately, this will be my last update for the weekend. Sunday is my birthday and I'm road tripping with friends to see my roommate and go to an amusement park. As a birthday present for me, I expect you ALL to not only read this chapter, but leave a review, and tell me what all cute couple-y things you'd like to see Mark and Lexie doing in the rest of this fanfic (and, you know, feel free to slip a happy birthday message in there if you want to). Have a lovely weekend!


	4. Chapter 4

The news of Lexie's awakening brought a new spirit to Derek and Meredith, who immediately started making calls to the people back in Seattle to let everyone know that Lexie was awake, stable, and coherent. Cristina had breathed a long, pleased sigh of relief. Bailey had praised Jesus so loudly that a sleeping patient had nearly fallen off their bed and ran off to let the entire hospital staff know. Thatcher and Arizona had both cried with relief. Owen, who had been a nervous wreck ever since he'd found out so many of his people had been injured and had barely slept a wink since, finally gave himself time to sit down and relax. And those that had been working shifts at Seattle Grace waited until everyone was finished to go out and have a celebratory drink, all toasting their glasses in honor of Lexie and the other survivors of the crash.

Lexie was much more awake the next morning, poring over all the cards and flowers and gift baskets she'd received during her time at the hospital. There were so many balloons and cards and flowers that the nurses had been forced to get incredibly creative with placement for all of them so doctors could get around Lexie easily and so her family would have enough room to sit. None of them had the heart to start siphoning any of them back to their hotel rooms before Lexie got the chance to wake up and look at all the love and well-wishes she'd received. She was already writing a list of varied thank you card messages when Mark, Meredith, and Derek arrived to visit her first thing in the morning.

"I think it's a little early for that. They can wait to get their thank you cards until you're back home and fully healed," Derek urged.

"I'm not sending them _now_," she stopped scribbling momentarily to look at her visitors. "I'm just making a list so I don't send two people the same message!" Both Derek and Meredith looked at Mark. He shrugged, eyes widening, because he had no idea where this bout of energy had come from. When he'd seen her, she was sleepy, drugged up, and could hardly talk. "I don't think anyone's going to compare notes to see what you wrote to them," Mark pried the card plans from her and set them aside. "I just have so much energy. I feel like I've been laying in this bed for weeks. I have to do SOMETHING," Lexie moaned.

"Lexie, you can hardly even move. Just relax, okay? Before you know it, we'll be back in Seattle and, once you're healed, you can get back to the hospital and get back to work. But, for now, you have to focus on relaxing." Meredith voiced, giving her the serious sister stare. Lexie didn't like this plan, but had no choice and no time to respond before her doctor came in.

Dr. Spiller addressed the hospital's plan of action, showing them the x-rays of Lexie's bones. She would need a cast and crutches for her broken leg and lots of rest for a fractured rib, as well as a caretaker to make sure she didn't overexert herself during her time off of work to heal all of her injuries. Mark quickly volunteered for the position. When they returned home, Lexie would need a week of bed rest to allow her ribs to continue healing. From there, she could start becoming more and more self-reliant (though there were obvious limitations to what she could do with her broken leg), while still being careful not to push herself too hard. And within eight weeks her cast would be off, her ribs would most likely be fully healed, and she would be good to go back to work.

This was all very, very good news, but Lexie seemed more frustrated by it than anything. The only thing that made her feel slightly better was the fact that she would be discharged from the hospital the following afternoon. It was clear something was bothering her and, though Mark could wager a guess as to the cause of her strange behavior, he preferred to let her tell him in her own time—whenever she was most comfortable disclosing the cause of her discomfort. Which, knowing Lexie's tendency to babble when angry, wouldn't take very long. He was right. Shortly after Meredith and Derek went to get lunch in the cafeteria, Lexie came clean.

"I am just so _frustrated_," Lexie groaned, putting an ice pack against her ribs to try and dull the pain that happened when she spoke a lot (speaking required breathing, which strained the ribs that had saved her from being completely crushed by the plane). While one hand held the ice pack in place, the other was used to motion dramatically in time with her words. "I almost DIED in that crash. If I had been one inch in an opposite direction, I might not be here. Or I might be here, or still in a coma or with a punctured organ or with all my ribs broken or any other number of things that could have gone wrong." Mark nodded along with her story, eating a Jello cup the hospital staff had brought Lexie for lunch that she hadn't wanted. "But I'm here. I'm _alive_. I survived this awful, horrible-" She searched for a moment, but couldn't seem to find the word she wanted, "_thing_. And instead of getting to go out there and do great things with this reminder in my head of how short life is, I'm stuck doing absolutely nothing for eight weeks."

Mark took one final bite of the Jello, setting the cup on the peach colored tray that held the remains of Lexie's lunch. He scooted his chair closer and took her free hand, clasping it with both hands as he stared deep into the hazel eyes he felt he could almost drown in. "I know it's a hard thing, feeling motivated to do so much and able to do so little," Mark's gruff voice was gentle, with his thumb softly caressing circles into the palm of her hand as he spoke. "But you said it yourself, Lex—you're _alive_. You were trapped under a piece of an airplane and you survived. You and I both know more than anything how fragile bodies are. They can be strong and tough- they can save you from being crushed by a piece of a plane—but, at the end of the day, they need time. Time to heal, time to recuperate. And yours completely and totally deserves the rest, and so do you. Life may be short, but you have to take it all in stride. One step at a time is all you need. I promise, the lesson we learned this week isn't one any of us will forget any time soon."

Her face softened as she considered this.

"Now, in the meantime," Mark continued, leaving a quick kiss on the back of her hand, "I have a game to keep your mind off of things."

* * *

"Oh my God, you're right."

"Told you."

"TOTALLY Bailey. How did I not see it before? How did I not see any of it? Have you seen a me floating around anywhere?"

"Yes."

"NO WAY! Who was it?"

They'd started the doppelganger game, in which they found the personality twins of the doctors from Seattle Grace. Lexie had looked at him like he was insane at first, but after her encounter with the stern nurse that Mark had the pleasure of meeting the previous night, she caved. They spent the next hour spying on hospital employees. It had shocked them just how much patients could notice—they only had to look hard enough to see the shared glances, the gentle hand grazes, the way doctors postures would change when they encountered someone they knew. All the flirty looks as they ran off to on call rooms were not as subtle as they probably seemed to the doctors. "Do we all look like that?" Lexie ogled. As doctors, it had always seemed so secretive. As patients it was anything but.

They created a checklist to finish in the next twenty-four hours, before Lexie was discharged. So far they'd found Bailey, April, and Hunt, but still had Cristina, Meredith, Mark, Derek, Alex, Arizona, Callie, Richard, Jackson, and Lexie to go. The fun part was when Meredith and Derek had returned from lunch, and wound up jumping into their game as well. It had taken some convincing but, once they had seen their own counterparts (a young intern and one of the surgeons emerging from the elevator trying to look normal, but with their clothes and hair askew and the intern trying to subtly un-jumble her papers as she went to find her resident), they were more than willing to jump in.

Meredith's mouth fell open, "Is… is that… Kepner and-"

"Avery?" Mark's eyes widened.

"No way!" Lexie watched the two carefully through the glass door to her room. Though they were not doppelgangers in looks, it was certainly easy to tell who was April. But it took her all of two seconds to identify Jackson. "Oh my God! When did _that_ happen?" Anyone who had been watching them all day probably thought they were insane. They were certainly not being subtle about staring at the hospital staff, even when they came into the room to check up on Lexie. Eventually, Mark and Derek went out on a recon mission to find some new faces they'd missed. Mark found Callie, and from there they saw an attractive OBGYN they deduced to be Arizona making eyes at Callie. Not exactly Peds, but it was close enough.

When it was time to leave the next day, they'd found everyone except Mark and Lexie. Both were very sour about not getting to meet, or at least see, their own doppelgangers. But at least Lexie knew hers was there somewhere. Once the Social Worker had taken care of the discharge papers, Lexie was wheeled down the hall in a wheelchair, accompanied by the last of the flowers and gift baskets she'd received. It was only as they were about to board the elevator when Holly Stepp, the doctor who had briefed them on Lexie's status after entering the hospital, stopped them, "Glad you're feeling better!" Mark nudged Lexie, but she'd already noticed. She'd gotten to see her doppelganger after all. "Have a safe trip home!" Holly caught the eye of someone in the distance, giving them all a friendly smile before heading off to meet an older, devilishly handsome doctor waiting for her by an on call room.

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I am SO sorry for the long wait with this chapter. There was a bit of a snafu with my birthday weekend and, well, long story short… I bit the pavement at the amusement park and managed to damage my knee, so I've been on painkillers that made me sleep constantly and haven't had much energy for writing. Soooooooo yeah—it was certainly a birthday I'll never forget. But now I'm back and not so drugged up, so I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter (which I made extra long because of the crazy wait you all have had for it!). Please remember to review! I love hearing the feedback from all of you.


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